"You keep using that word. I do not think it
means what you think it means."

– Inigo Montoya

People at large companies bandy about the terms "key account management" and "strategic account management" in conversation every day.

Ask 10 people to define what these are, or to tell you what the criteria are for an account to be named a "key" account, and you’re likely to get 10 very different answers.

When companies lack an effective and universally understood definition of key account management, their success is hampered from the start. If you can’t define something, it’s difficult to develop a strategy around it...

While getting a buyer to say "yes" to an initial sales meeting is a battle in and of itself, much success is determined by what happens in that first meeting. There are many mistakes to avoid, especially when you’re the one setting the meeting and driving the demand for your offerings.

At the very core, meetings set by you—the seller—flow differently than if the buyer contacted you and asked you to meet. After all, if you set the meeting, odds are the product, service, or solution you’re trying to sell isn’t on the buyer’s radar screen. You’re trying to persuade a buyer to put something on their agenda that they hadn’t otherwise been considering.

You need connect. You need to inspire. And you need to drive action...

According to research from Aberdeen Group, best-in-class companies—those that outperform others on a variety of sales factors, including quota attainment, shrinking the sales cycle, and growing the average deal size:

Up until now, these capabilities were really only accessible to big companies with millions of dollars to build programs, set up sophisticated technologies, and have the staff and resources to implement and improve...

I recently returned from an industry conference. The speakers were excellent and it was great to get away from my desk, connect with the attendees, and have the opportunity to step back and think big picture about what I need to be doing to drive success in my position. I returned with all sorts of notes, to-dos, and grand visions for change.

On my first day back in the office I was energized. Then the phone started to ring, the emails came flooding in, and my schedule filled with meetings. Two weeks later, while I had made some progress on my aspirational list of to-dos, by and large I was back to doing what I had always done.

The problem for me was that there was no support to make the change when I got back to the office.

The same thing happens after even the best sales training programs, especially if the training is structured as an instructor-led, event-based, one-time only affair...